Texas Got 18 Percent of Its Energy from Wind and Solar Last Year

There are 1 comment on the
Scientific American
story from Feb 4, 2018, titled Texas Got 18 Percent of Its Energy from Wind and Solar Last Year.
In it, Scientific American reports that:

For years critics have claimed grid costs and stability will spiral out of control before we hit 20 percent renewable energy. Texas is proving them wrong While Texas is most often associated with fossil fuels and conservative politics, it's also earning a reputation as a leader in renewable energy integration.

"Last year, Texas generated 18 percent of its energy from wind and solar — with wind providing the vast majority of total renewable generation. The 18 percent number matters because for years critics of renewable energy have argued that grid costs and reliability will spiral out of control before we hit 20 percent wind and solar. But in Texas, retail electricity prices have actually decreased, coming in well below the U.S. average."

One of the largest power authorities in Texas ONCOR has been moving towards alternative energy generation with energy storage. They are trying to change the business model to distributed generation with micro-grids and energy storage for a more reliable grid infrastructure. Fueled generation has its problems. You can have a strike and affect the flow of fuel anywhere along the supply chain. Miners or the ones who drill for the product could go on strike, transportation could go on strike, World events could drive up prices. Commodity fueled generation needs to phase out and massive alternative energy resources developed with distributed energy storage along the grid infrastructure needs to be developed.

There are still many electric utilities in the U.S. crying about "only 1%" of energy needs are serviced by solar PV. Yet they use this 1% as an excuse to ask for rate hikes on the cost of electricity every opportunity they get. There's your 1% folks. 1% used as an excuse for lazy power company CEOs and their board of directors.

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